


Pirates and Mermaids Shouldn't Mix

by drvkos



Category: Homestuck
Genre: I think Gamzee's there too I just forgot about him while writing, M/M, Mentions of Violence, Mermaids, Merstuck, Pirates, Sirens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 3,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25370014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drvkos/pseuds/drvkos
Summary: John’s a mermaid, as well as his siblings, but after the sirens invaded their territory, John basically gets taken in by Dirk. But one day, when he really wants to leave him, he sees a big shadow.this old fanfic i wrote based off of a fanfic i read on wattpad a few years back with basically the same sirens and mermaids idea with pirates there toothis fanfic is kinda old, i'm not good with anyone's personalities (sorry about that), there's some inconsistencies here and there and i'm not a very good writer but this was made for fun reallyenjoy?
Relationships: John Egbert & Dirk Strider
Kudos: 2





	1. 1

“John, come on! Dirk’s gonna beat your butt if you stay out after curfew. Especially when he finds out that you’re out here! Plus the hurricane that’s gonna hit tomorrow. We need to get ready!” Jade called out to John, her bigger hands grabbing his arms. Her weight, size and strength greatly outmatched his as he got dragged by his sister away from the rocks where he usually resides in during daylight, though by now it was afternoon.  
“I don’t wanna go! I hate him!” John shouted and screamed at her as she pulled him even faster and he squirmed in her grasp, hesitating her arm before biting it with his teeth. They weren’t nearly as sharp as a sirens, but the bite still made his sister let him go as she shook her bitten hand.  
“Ow! The hell?! What was that for?” She shouted at her brother before a flurry of bubbles were flying to her face while John made a great escape moving as fast as he could. His swimming was, of course, no where near as to how fast Dirk could travel, which made him worry and swim even faster. He could feel Jade catching up to him and her hand touch his tail a few times, trying to catch him. He used to be faster than her, but his tail fin was damaged.  
As he swam he moved his tail slightly into another direction, letting the light bounce off his scales and let it hit her sister in the eyes. She covered her eyes and let out a shout of annoyance. It didn’t hurt her of course, but it did slow her down.  
This made him swim even faster, looking back at Jade, not noticing the giant looming shadow approaching him, and when he did he screamed and flinched, covering his face with his arms.  
Him, thinking it was Dirk, was caught off guard when he didn’t feel himself being grabbed or scratched, and took his arms off his face when he saw that it wasn’t Dirk, but instead saw the silhouette of something bigger above him.  
He kept hearing shouting from behind him and he quickly spun his head around before he could get a good look at the thing and saw his sister moving towards him, quickly. He could only see that she was mouthing something. What was it? It was harder for him to see what she was saying while being so far. He had always been described as having bad vision. Squinting, he had seen that she mouthed something a long the lines of moo? She was pointing up. Look? Look at what? Oh wait! Move, look up. What did that mean? When he realised what she was saying he looked up in confusion and curiosity and saw a giant net over his head engulf him and trapped him before he could even blink.


	2. 2

Screaming, screaming was all John’s sister heard as she tugged at the ropes binding him. His tail was curled and he struggled at the fact that he could barely moved the small net. When he thought that this couldn’t get any worse, he felt like he was getting pulled up as Jade had a face of horror, as he started approaching the lighter parts of the sea, approaching the top. He could hear some voices from above.  
“I’ll get you out of here. I’ll get Jake or Jane, please be safe.” Jade said as she stopped pulling at the ropes and started quickly swimming away.  
“Don’t leave me alone! Please! Jade.” He called out as the green tailed figure swam away before she disappeared into the sea. He kept squirming and pushing down on the net, but it was squeezing him so much that someone as little as him could barely move. He kept trying anyway until his head appeared over water, seeing that this was a boat, and the thing that scared him most that this was a pirate’s boat (they were big and they always have some kind of gold writing on the side). Oh no, oh no oh no oh no. He’s heard of stories about pirates. How they abuse mermaids and use their powers for their own gain. But how are they here? The strong currents protected the area, didn’t they? Though at that time the only thing he could think of was he was fear. Why did he swim away? Why didn’t he move when Jade told him too? What will they do to him? Will his siblings come and save him? And if he did get ow, there was something that scared him a bit more. Scratch that, much more, and that was... what if Dirk finds out?


	3. 3

“Karkat! Scrub the deck!” Vriska shouted over her shoulder as she steered the ship.  
“I already have! Ten times! And I will not do it again.” He responded back to her, his voice was naturally loud so it sounded like a shout anyway. He threw the sponge he was using on the ground in anger. He hated Vriska.  
“C,mon Karkat, Captain’s orders,” Sollux paused for a minute to gag, looming over the side of the boat, holding onto the side for support. “Like mine was to throw up on the side of the boat.” He growled, referring to Vriska who knew about his seasickness and Eridan’s laugh that followed.  
“I’ve already done, what, everything! I’m sick of this.” Karkat snarled stomping over to the navigation room. He reached out to the door and stepped inside, but not before hearing Sollux call out that he hasn’t thrown up over the deck before, which he gladly hasn’t.  
When he stepped inside he was greeted by the sight of an Equius looking over the map, looking outside and looking at the compass at the same time.  
“We’re near Mermaid territory.” Equius said, looking over at Karkat and pointing on the map. “The rocky mount over there is a well known, but hard to get to landmark. I shouldn’t be surprised though, calm before the storm they say. But we shouldn’t stay for long...” By that point Karkat got bored and stopped listening and just stared at the map. Mermaid territory, huh. They were fishing, and it was the net kind. So would that mean?  
That wouldn’t happen, would it? It’s not impossible... but there’s also been word about sirens in the area, wait...  
“Equius! We have to get out of here!” Karkat shouted at him, cutting him off midway through a talk about the sails and how he should probably fix the mechanisms on it (a robotic pirate ship. cool eh). Equius looked at Karkat with a face full of confusion.  
Karkat spoke in a quieter tone. “There’s been word about sirens in the area, remember?” Karkat whispered to him before he went wide eyed and before they heard Aradia call out something.  
“We caught something!”


	4. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short chapter sorry

Karkat and Equius exchanged looks for a minute before flailing around. Equius quickly opened the door and ran outside while Karkat followed in pursuit.  
“Why’s it so heavy? We only sent out a small one. Equius could you give me a hand?” Nepeta asked as they both started to worry, and Equius started to sweat. Maybe it was just a big catch? Equius moved warily and helped on an extra rope.  
“Why’s there fish around? Don’t most fish leave the area if there’s a hurricane?” Feferi asked as she walked to wards the side of the boat to see the catch.  
“Maybe a school swam into the net while leaving?” Kanaya piped in. By now the entire crew was now looking, other than Sollux who was too busy throwing up over the side.  
When the Aradia, Nepeta and Equius finally heaved the net out of water and for the whole crew to see, they all saw that it wasn’t a fish.  
It was a mermaid.


	5. 5

As Jade swam as fast as she could, she tried her best not to look back. What if they hurt her little brother? That thought kept running through her mind until she reached the area where her older siblings would hang out most days.  
“Jake? Jane? Where are you?” She shouted as she swam into the cave as fast as she could.  
“I’m here, and why do you look like you swam a marathon, Harley? I’d never expect a goldfish like you swim so fa-“  
“Jake shut your fish trap, we gotta go! And where’s Jane?” Jade cut Jake off as she grabbed him and started swimming vigilantly, she didn’t want any sirens seeing them leaving the area.  
“She’s with Roxy, but I’d expect a chapess like you to know that we could get caught.” Jake spoke in a more wary tone and Jade swim even faster.  
“Well John got caught, but by some fishermen! Or maybe pirates!” Jade shouted as she let go of Jake’s hand. She was trying her best to stay on course and she was trying not to lose her way. They weren’t far from the windy mount, were they?  
“What?! We have to find the lad!” Jake called out as he grabbed Jade’s arm, the one that was holding his earlier, and swam forwards, the green sculpin being much faster than the green danio. Though while the two tried to look for the ship, some people were listening. Actually, it was a couple of sirens. A red eyed mako shark and a pacific purple octopus hiding behind some coral, following the two until they got enough information. They were the ones who were going to tell Dirk all about this, and he wasn’t going to be happy.


	6. 6

John felt himself be fully engulfed by air as he was pulled out of water while the net went up. The net showed no sign of stopping and he kept going up until he was face to face with one of the most scariest things to a mermaid. Pirates. Twelve to be exact, and they all looked at him in awe. Shiny but dripping black hair, pale skin that was littered in white scares and shiny (which is how you tell and siren a mermaid apart. Sirens don’t really have anything shiny on them, they’re matt, so that calmed Karkat and Equius down), iridescent blue scales with light and dark blotches of colour on them on his chest, arms and face. Though the pretty part was his tail which was flapping lightly in the cold breeze, covered in scars as well. He looked at the sailors in fear, his vision adjusting to the brighter light. He never liked going out of water.  
“Woah.” John heard a raspy voice from one of the humans. She had red hair and some deep, red glasses and the casual pirate wear. Black pants, brown boots and a white shirt. Her clothes looked exactly like what the others were wearing, except for the glasses of course.  
“What is it?” She turned to the right and looked at the blonde one in the coat and hat. Maybe she was blind, and that would explain why she wasn’t looking at him, but that was the second thing that came to mind. The first thing was that came to mind was that he realised that the one she was ‘looking’ at, the blonde one that was wearing a black coat and a blue pirate’s hat, was the probably the captain. He started struggling and moving frantically in fear, or, at least moving as much as he could in the little net.  
“It’s a mermaid!” The captain shouted at her. “Bring him over, we gotta see what he’s got.” She rubbed her hands together and looked at him as if he were gold and John knew exactly why. Mermaids have been used as a magic like supply for pirates, their tears are said to grant wishes, their blood can be used to make any kind of potion possible and their scales are way more valuable than diamonds. You’re basically royalty if you can even wear one on you and they are often used as a glass that, if you look through, it can show you how to get anything you want the easiest way possible. It’s very hard to get one and only a handful of people have them.  
“We are not hurting him! Look, he’s scared.” The one with curly black hair and pink goggles said, emphasised the ‘not’ as she smacked the probably captain on the head, causing the blonde to clutch the area in pain.  
“Uhh, we really can’t get him out of those ropes, unless we do take him, uh, on board.” A brunette haired boy with shaved sides and two peg legs stammered, tapping the one with the goggles on the shoulder.  
“Oh, right. Yeah. Hey guys, can you get him aboard?” She said right before one with long hair and broken sunglasses moved to some sort of machine. He pushed a couple of buttons before he and two other girls pulled some levers and ropes that appeared to make the net move. Cold, afternoon wind was smacking John’s body before he felt the him and the net drop and fell to the ground with a giant crash.


	7. 7

“Dirk! Dirk!” Two young sirens, yet still around the age of Jade and John, called out for someone, progressively dragging out the ‘i’ in said name. They frantically yet excitedly swam around a castle while guards moved out of the way. Circling their hands around their mouths while giving of some mischievous grins.  
“What do you want?” Dirk puffed out annoyingly, scratching between his teeth with one of his claws as the two younger siblings swam into a large room that also had two guards by it. The room was built out of grey stone bricks and looked old yet was covered in an assortment of decorations that included portraits, weapons, bones, flowers and golden and silver trinkets. Dirk was sitting on a shiny gold chair in front of a shiny gold table with a silver chandelier hanging over it. Across from him was a bored Roxy lazing around on a chair, looking very interested in her hands and was presumably waiting for her mermaid to bring them some food. There was no food on the table, only a large amount of empty plates and bowls filled with bones, crumbs and a few leftovers from the fruit and vegetables. The only one who could’ve made the food for them was Roxy’s mermaid, Jane. It was probably the only reasons Roxy took her in.  
The two younger siblings of the four looked at each other with some devilish smiles before Jane entered the room with more cooking. “Food anyone? More fried skillet and a roasted albatross.” Jane said as she put the plates down in front of the Dirk and Roxy. Rose and Dave eyed it hungrily, but remembered what they were there for and shook their heads before swimming to sit on some more empty chairs in front of the table.  
“Well, you see...” Dave started off, sounding like he was going to say more until Rose butted in. “John was taken by some fishermen, or pirates, one of the two.” Rose spat out quickly, moving her crooked hairband and reaching out for some of the wing of the albatross while Dave reached for the body of it.  
“What?” Dirk shouted loudly, slamming both his hands on the table, shaking it like an earthquake as Roxy choked on some bone in surprise of the news or the table shaking. Jane started shaking, staring at them in horror before going over to her siren and slapping her back, getting to get the bone out of her throat.  
“Where’d you two get that info?” Roxy asked, rubbing her throat staring at Rose and Dirk rubbed him temples and kept mumbling about John. “Of course he’d do that, that’s why he was out after curfew, I knew that something was missing, how’d I forget about him.” He seethed through his teeth. “We were coming back here until we overheard his big sister telling his big cousin about it.” Dave answered Roxy, picking out something between his pointy teeth with some bone while Jane had a worried expression plastered onto her face and put her hands on her face.  
“We hid and then they swam in the direction of Windy Mount.” Rose added on again, licking out some bone marrow.  
“He went back there?” Dirk shouted some more. He was sick of the little clownfish running away and going to places he wasn’t supposed to, especially back there. Then the idiot got caught by some fisherman. Maybe even pirates. Him shouting seemed like a vent for having to keep that mermaid. “Kiddo’s gonna be in for one hell of a time.” Roxy murmured to a horrified sculpin next to her as Dirk shouted to Dave and then to some guards to head in to Windy Mount. Jane started to swim slowly towards the window until her tail was caught and squeezed by Roxy’s claws painfully.  
“Stay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> should've made that stuff purple but i still like gold  
> god was it embarrassing reading through this


	8. 8

John was too scared to open his eyes. What were they going to do to him? Pirates aren’t good people. He heard it from his father. Some could be empathetic, but there’s no story of any pirate like that. None have lived to tell the tale. If there were a tale like that anyways. John could feel the pirates looming over him and started to curl up into himself, even when some rope was being ripped. He could feel the rough knuckles of the big hands on his scarred yet soft skin and on his scales while the pirate ripped the rope apart.  
As the rope became looser, John actually had a feeling that the pirate’s didn’t want to hurt him and that he could even live to tell the tale. Finally, after all the ropes were off him, he saw that the one who helped him was the one with the broken sunglasses who appeared to sweat a lot.  
“There, that should do it.” His gruff voice came out as John started to slowly lift himself up and held himself up by his arms, looking at all the pirates.  
He could see all twelve looking at him, even the one hanging loosely from the side of the ship. One of them seemed quite excited and was jumping on the spot, making her short hair bob up and down. She wore a fluffy blue hat, some fluffy blue gloves and her pants were ripped (she also appeared to be barefoot. why? John would never know).  
“It’s so cool to have a mermaid on board! Look at him! He looks so cute.” She pranced up to him and squished his cheeks at the end of her sentence, fluffy gloves grabbing his chin. The girl appeared to be the shortest out of all the twelve, but still taller than him.  
“What should we do with him? What if he starts singing?” A girl with ripped pants as well, but a little red cloak on asked the one with pink goggles.  
“He’s a blue guy, he can’t do much.” The pink spectacled one waved off. The girl in front of John was examining his entire body, touching his hands, feeling his tail and brushing his hair. “Aww, what’s your name little guy?” She said, as if he were an animal of some sorts, which is something he found a little odd, why did they talk to him as he were an animal anyways. He assumed that it was only because they didn’t want to hurt his feelings or something so he eventually shook the thought out of his head and answered her question.  
“John.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no idea who red coat is i'm so fucking dumb


	9. 9

“He’s gotta be around here somewhere!” Jade basically screamed at Jake. “Boats don’t go that fast, especially since the currents aren’t as strong right now, so they chap should still be around. Maybe Johnny escaped?”  
“He could never. He’s still wounded and the net was too tight! He isn’t strong, Jake, he’s vulnerable.” Jade looked down remembering how after his first day with Dirk John smelt of blood.  
“That’s why the prince took him.” Jake replied and then looked down as well, remembering how angry he was when John’s caudal fin was ripped. He could never swim as fast as before anymore.  
“This is the way they were going, I’m sure of it!” Jade exclaimed, slapping Jake, indicating for him to follow her. They swam around and around the area, looking for where the boat was, but still wary of getting too far away from the little underwater town they reside in.  
“Why was he out here anyways? He knows that he isn’t supposed to be out after curfew. He’d be beaten bloody if that happened-“  
“He had enough of the prince!” Jade shouted to Jake. No one would expect John to like the prince because, why would he? Every little scar on his body is from the prince, and that’s not including the mental pain. He’s too scared to look at the guards now, even though they were like a comfort to him when he was little. Him being outgoing and having his clear skin seemed like a distant memory, and everyone knows that it can’t come back because when a creature hurts another, the scars can never heal because of the magic of the sea.  
“I miss the times when we’d hang out.” Jake remembered, saying it out loud, halting to a slow stop.  
“Remember when we’d catch fish together,” Jade recifered  
“And make traps,”  
“And remember the time when John and I made those disgusting bird eye, purple seaweed, apple, flower cupcakes?” Jade laughed.  
“And then we all threw up on some poor catfish?” Jake tried to hold in his laugh, but failed. At that moment the two green fish of the family started to burst out into laughter and were shaking. The memory was still so fresh in their mind that it felt like it happened yesterday, even though it happened about a year back.  
“I’d hate it if a siren kept me too.” Jake said to Jade, looking at her through his hair.  
“We’re lucky, we’re green, so we’re pretty strong, even to the typical siren.” Jade breathed out. She turned around and looked around a bit more, remembering that they had to find John. Why were they reminiscing old times? They’ve got a brother to find.  
“I understand why John hates the prince.” Jake started moving a bit, looking at some landmarks he remembered when going out with his grandma and then hitting Jade on the arm, pointing in the direction of an island close to the area. That must be where the fishermen or pirates’ are heading.  
“John sometimes will just subconsciously throw out something about the prince before getting scared and looking around. John just wants to run away.” Jade said as the two started swimming to where Jake pointed.  
“How much does the chap hate the prince anyways?”  
“So much. You have no idea. He hates how the guy raps and wants to punch him so hard, but he knows he can’t. He fought back before and that’s how he got the-“  
“Scratch on his face.” A familiar voice cut in, a voice that made both the siblings turn around, a voice that would send shivers down John’s spine when spoken so calmly. It was the voice of the prince.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so that's kinda where i left it  
> might continue it might not  
> don't know if i'll bother fixing any inconsistencies or mistakes that are prominent in the first 9 chapters though  
> if people like this then i might take a go at this fic again


End file.
